REPORT 2021

REINFORCING COLLABORATIONON YOUTH SOCIO-ECONOMICEMPOWERMENT INITIATIVESH.E. Paul Kagame
President
Republic of Rwanda

Leaders cannot lead countries alone. They can only set the tempo andraise the level of ambition by involving the public directly.
This is a key reason why, in Rwanda, we spend a great deal of time
investing in, and engaging with young people.
The goal is to make them more self-reliant, conﬁdent and innovative
than previous generations. Otherwise, there is no way to secure thegains that our country has made in the past 25 years.

H.E. Nana Addo
President
Republic of Ghana

Demographic dividends do not come automatically; they have to be earned.To
realize the dividend, the African countries have to invest in the empowerment,
education and employment of our young people.
With over 40 percent of its working population between the ages of 15 and 24,
Africa is the youngest continent in the world. This represents a staggering
amount of human capital, and according to the African Economic Outlook, thisnumber is set to double by 2045. Yet too many of them are trapped in poverty
with few opportu�nities for them to learn and to earn a decent living.
Africa’s economy is on the edge of a breakthrough, but only if there are systematic investments in human capital.

Hon. Rosemary Mbabazi
Minister of Youth and Culture, Rwanda
Chair of the YouthConnekt AfricaYour generation builds on incredible strides that the continent has
made over the last couple of decades. Regional integration is stronger
today more than ever, and the Africa Free Trade Area Agreement is at
the pinnacle of our accomplishments because its implementation will
reveal the true force that Africa is. The realization of One Africa
aspired for through this agreement will only be achieved when young
people unlock it.
As the generation that is more educated, empowered and connected
than previous, it is important that you lead Africa into its next level ofgrowth leveraging innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration.

Mme. Ahunna Eziakonwa
UNDP Assistant Administrator andDirector, Regional Bureau for Africa

Through our collective resolve to move the continent to a placeof empowered lives – for people and nations, we can truly
commence a journey that manifests an Africa Beyond Aid.
The Youth Connekt Africa 2021 Summit reminded us that it ispossible to change the reality and destiny of this vibrant continent through engaging with each other in a new way.

FOREWORD
The year 2021 was a pivotal moment in quest of furthering the mission andvision of YouthConnekt Africa. Harnessing the demographic dividend throughinvestment in the youth for a socio-economic transformation is near and dearto our hearts. 2021 was an action year, where the vision of establishing a
regional knowledge development secretariat for YouthConnekt Africa’s
initiatives was realized through our partnership with the Government of
Rwanda, under the Ministry of Youth and Culture and the UNDP Regional
Service Centre for Africa.
I would like to recognize the visionary leadership of Minister Rosemary Mbabazi, and Mrs. Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Secretary General-Director of theAfrica Bureau of UNDP, in their roles of Chair and Co-Chair of the YouthConnekt Africa Steering Committee, for their invaluable support and leadership in

Mrs. Oulie Keita

steering the YouthConnekt Africa Hub into an impactful and sustainablepan-African youth Hub. They believe in the vision of an interconnected Africa
for young people and have dedicated their time and resources to its realiza-

Executive Director
YouthConnekt Africa Hubtion. I’m grateful.
This past year, the YouthConnekt Africa network grew to 25 countries with the joining of Botswana, Gabon, Tchad, Mauritania andNiger. During the year, in an eﬀort to strengthen knowledge development, the YouthConnekt Africa Hub initiated formal engagementswith all the member states, acting as a connector of all stakeholders in countries to identify opportunities for development, harmonization of tools, identiﬁcation of technical and ﬁnancial resources, sharing of best practices and scaling up eﬀorts.
Additionally, the YouthConnekt Africa launched popular mobilization programs targeted at identifying and supporting Africa’s emerging entrepreneurs to take advantage of regional trade leveraging the AfCFTA; through a partnership initiated a regional youth mental
health and sexual and reproductive health program; launched an assessment on youth policies and strategies; and co-organized the six
edition of the YouthConnekt Africa Summit We are grateful for the leadership of the Government of Ghana, under H.E. Nana Addo
Dankwa Akuﬀo Addo for hosting the ﬁrst post-COVID19 YouthConnekt Africa Summit, which convened over 3000 people in Accra,
including 22 Ministers of Youth from various parts of Africa. Our partnership with KOICA, and UNDP contributed signiﬁcantly to thisrealization. The Minister of Youth and Sports of Ghana together with the Ghanaian National Youth Council were instrumental in the
successful delivery of the 2021 Summit in Accra.
We are also thankful to the Government of Senegal, under H.E. Macky Sall, who hosted the ﬁrst YouthConnekt Sahel Forum in West
Africa. From November 30 to December 2, 2021, about 1000 youth in person and 12000 online from the 10 Sahelian countries gatheredin Dakar to participate in the premiere YouthConnekt Sahel Forum under the theme “Connecting Sahelian Youth for Peace and Prosperity”. The YouthConnekt Sahel network will be supporting the mission of YouthConnekt Africa to strengthen collaboration with UNDP
country oﬃces in the Sahel region in enhancing integrated and inclusive development agenda, which keeps Youth at the centre of
SDGs realization. The plan is to engage the Youth Connekt initiatives in each of the 10 Sahel countries to follow up on the key actions
emanating from the call to action for implementation.
Another extensive part of our work has been ecosystem building, we set oﬀ to ambitiously connect Africa’s Changemakers driving thevarious private sector and civil society initiatives that are addressing the challenges of young people. We are grateful to fruitful partnerships we have established in 2021, including – UNDP West and Central Africa Hub, UNESCO, GGGI, Snake Nation, Imbuto Foundation,
Digital Opportunity Trust, ONE Campaign, SDSN Youth Network, Digital Africa, SMART Africa, SDG Centre for Africa, The Prince’s TrustInternational, to name a few.
As we begin this new year, we are excited to announce that the next YouthConnekt Africa Summit will be hosted in Kigali, Rwanda, andwill be a greater opportunity to convene, learn, share and commit to delivering better for Africa’s Youth. Stay tuned for more information on this year’s YouthConnekt Africa’s Summit 2022.

THE YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA
GENESIS AND STORY

YouthConnekt was inspired by the visionary leadership of H.E.
Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, whosought to create a Government led platform for young people
to contribute to policy dialogues, co designing and informing
decisions on the investments and programs aimed at empowering them.
In 2012, for the ﬁrst time, YouthConnekt platform convened
young people, civil society, development partners, private
sector to deliver a nationwide innovation and entrepreneurshipchallenge, and a Meet the President Dialogue, both eﬀorts
which since birthed many new initiatives co-created by young

level beyond the six initial countries (Rwanda, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Liberia, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone
and Uganda);
2.The establishment of a YouthConnekt Africa Hub andoﬀering regional support to national youth programs, and3.The establishment of a YouthConnekt Empowerment Fund,which would seek to ﬁnance youth empowerment initiatives
across the continent.

people and various stakeholders.

Championed by the Ministry of Youth Rwanda, which was

Inspired by the YouthConnekt Rwanda initiative that won thetee, the motion to endorse the YouthConnekt Africa Initiative

UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa Innovation Award in 2013, a
number of African countries and UNDP Country Oﬃces
demonstrated an increasing interest in establishing a similar

appointed chair of the YouthConnekt Africa Steering Commitas a model implementation framework of the Africa Youth
Charter was presented and adopted, at the Alger African
Union Specialized Technical Committee which convened

model.

between October 21st – 25th, 2018.

In 2016, following recognition by the UNDP, ﬁve other

Following this, the African Union Executive Council, in Febru-

countries adopted the YouthConnekt model: The Democratic
Republic of Congo, the Republic of Liberia, the Republic ofCongo, the Republic of Sierra Leone and the Republic ofary 2019, endorsed the YouthConnekt Africa as a model
initiative to be scaled and supported the establishment of theYouthConnekt Africa Hub, an independent secretariat to

Uganda.

support the scaling of the YouthConnekt Africa initiative.

In 2017, the Government of Rwanda, in partnership with UNDP

To date YouthConnekt Africa counts 25 mamber states .Theand UNCTAD, organized the ﬁrst YouthConnekt Africa Summit
which was hosted by H.E. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda.

06

1.Scaling up of the YouthConnekt initiative to the regional

Alongside this inaugural summit, a Ministers of Youth Roundtable convened and deliberated on the following:

YouthConnekt Africa (Hub) was operationalised in 2020 andis based in Kigali, Rwanda.

YouthConnekt Africa Chapters

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.

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The Republic of Botswana
The Republic of Tchad
The Republic of Mauritania
The Republic of Mali
The Republic of Gabon
The Federal Republic of Ethiopia
The Republic of Cape Verde
The Republic of Sao TomeThe Republic of Ghana
The Republic of Madagascar
The Republic of Cameroun
The Republic of Zimbabwe
The Republic of Guinee
The Republic of Burkina Faso
The Republic of Gambia
The Republic of Togo
The Republic of Senegal
The Democratic Republic of Congo
The Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)
The Republic of Liberia
The Republic of Zambia
The Republic of Uganda
The Republic of Sierra Leonne
The Republic of Rwanda
The Republic of Niger

A

YEAR IN REVIEW AT
YOUTHCONNEKET AFRICA HUB

Launched New Programs :1. eAccelerator (Entrepreneurship)
2. iAccelerator (Health)
3. Policy Analysis
4. Clusters Challenge

Grew to 25 National Chapters
Representing adhesion of governments
to the YouthConnekt Africa Agenda.

Reenforced knowledge development
of best practices throughPartnerships:
With UNDP Regional Service Center for Africa

engagement of National Chapters.

for the implementation of the Scaling Up
of YouthConnekt projectWith UNESCO for the Analysis of
National Youth Policies
With GGGi for development of regional
network of green entrepreneurs.

Signed New Strategic Partnerships with
Prince’s Trust International, Global Green Growth
Initiative (GGGI), Digital Africa,
UNESCO, HP, SDGCA.

Hosted 1st Post - Covid
YouthConnekt Africa Summit
iAccra - Ghana Oct 20 - 22, 2021
Convening 3000 people
22 Ministers of Youth
Over 300 Youth development organisations.
Hosted 1st Sahel Youth Forum
Dakar Nov 30 - Dec 2, 2021
Convened 1000 Young People
from 10 Sahel Countries.

08

YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA HUB PROGRAMMESThe very objective of this challenge is to amplify the work of national YouthConnekt programmes and co-design impactful activities to empower young people.
All member countries were invited to join diﬀerent clusters based on thestrengths of the national YouthConnekt Programme,current youth development priorities, and overall scope of the initiative in the respective country. A small grant (USD
10,000) would be awarded to member countries to pilot activities under the cluster. This ﬁnancial support would be a“matching grant” where member countries would also contribute through ﬁnancial or in-kind contribution

Initially, for 2021 YCA will be supporting 10
ﬂagships initiatives in following clusters:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Youth Entrepreneurship
Empowering Startups
Peace, Security & Resilience
Girls in Innovation
Leadership and Civic Engagement
Green Jobs, Climate, and Circular Economy
Youth driving AfCFTA
Digital Skills for Future
Innovation for SDGs
Digital Inclusion

Evaluation Criteria :The cluster challenge application was
evaluated based on the following 6
criteria
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Partnerships
Sustainability
Young people beneﬁting
Quality of workplan and proposal
Mode of funding
Capacity to manage funds-

Following a call for proposal applications were received from the following countries:
Botswana, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinee, Congo DRC, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Cameroon, Uganda
Winners of ﬁrst Cohort:
Botswana - Green Jobs, Climate and Circular Economy
Burkina Faso - Youth Entrepreneurship
Guinee - Girls in Innovation
Sierra Leone - Digital Skills for Future /Innovation for SDGs
Cameroon - Youth in Agriculture
Ghana - Youth driving AfCFTA and Innovation for SDGs

09

YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA HUB PROGRAMMESIn 2021, YouthConnekt Africa along with its network ofpartners set oﬀ to launch a regional Export Accelerator
program, to accelerate the participation of youth owned
enterprises in the new regional marketplace.

The African Free Trade Area Agreement is a groundbreaking policy framework that brings together 54 African countries
merging them into a single market of 1.3 Billion people and is expected to create am economic bloc with a combined GDP
of USD 3.4 Trillion.
The program would deliver over a period seven months’ various services to support these entrepreneurs including: export
strategy and access to facilitated new market entry, strengthening of company operations, production eﬃciency, preparation for growth funding. The Export Accelerator will support entrepreneurs to develop capacities and competences totrade eﬀectively across borders, grow their production capacities, attract ﬁnancing to sustain this opportunity and will befacilitated with initial engagement to support market access.
Following a two-month call for applications, we received 149 applications, of which 17 were selected based. The entrepreneurs participated in a boot camp alongside the October 2021 YouthConnekt Africa Summit to kick start the program.

The YouthConnekt Africa Hub as a regional ecosystem partner that
supports Governments and national ecosystems, is mandated tosupport in an advisory capacity with the modelling and adaptation ofpolicies that meet the changing demands and contexts of nations.

Through working with national chapters, the YouthConnekt also develops knowledge from emerging best practices andsuccessful programs that have demonstrated saleable solutions to the issues pertaining youth socio-economic transformation in Africa. To date, the YouthConnekt counts 25 national chapters namely: Niger, Botswana, Mauritania, Tchad, Liberia,
Uganda, Sierra Leone, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia. The Gambia, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea (Conakry), Madagascar, Sao Tome, Ethiopia, Mali and
Rwanda.
It is against this backdrop that YouthConnekt Africa is endeavoring to conduct an analysis on national youth strategies. Thisnational youth analysis will contribute to the development and implementation of policy reforms, institutional capacity
building, monitoring and evaluation and resource mobilization. Initial ﬁnding of our policy work is shared in the reportunder the section – Shaping National Youth Strategies.

10

PROGRAMMES ENGAGEMENTThe YouthConnekt Africa started a country engagement Programme to amplify the work of national YouthConnekt
programmes, improve communication, and collaborate to co-design activities with its national programmes. In the ﬁrst
quarter, ﬁve countries have been engaged to document the various components of YC model being replicated in theﬁeld. The details of the engagement are as under:

YOUTHCONNEKT RWANDA
Rwanda is a pioneer of the YouthConnekt Model, has been leading the youth employment creation, civic engagement,
and supporting youth innovations in Rwanda.
Focus area: Youth Entrepreneurship, Green Jobs, Civic Engagement, HealthComponents: (1) Awards (2) Champions (3) Mentorship (4) Convention (5) Dialogue (6) Hangout (7) Month andHolidays

Achievements:
893 Young entrepreneurs empowered+25,399 Jobs has been created
640 Young Entrepreneurs have been
mentored

11,590 Environment activists trained andengaged through Eco-Brigade programme
2,427 Vulnerable Youth including teen mothers, people with disabilities and youth center.
trainees, forming 38 groups.
90 Youth Refugee were trained and ﬁnancially
supported

24K Policy advocates have actively participated in policy dialogues and civic engagement discussions –YouthConnekt Convention.
4 Million Youth activists impacted theircommunities through hands-on activities
under the YouthConnekt Month andholidays programme.
70 Innovators in SRH Supported underi-Accelerator programme
70 Artists were trained and are being
mentored under Art Rwanda

YOUTHCONNEKT DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGOYC DRC is a vibrant programme that promote innovations and partnership for development popularization of youth
initiatives and entrepreneurship in Democratic Republic of Congo.
Focus area: Youth Entrepreneurship, Innovations, Civic education, and social cohesion
Components: (1) Civic Education and Social Cohesion (2) Platform YouthConnektRDC (3) Youth Entrepreneurship (4)YouthConnekt Generation

Achievements:+15 Zoom conferences held on the platform(April-August 2020)
Partnerships & exchanges for the developmentof youth entrepreneurship through provincial
WhatsApp groups.

12

Organization of the 2nd Fintech edition (Inclusive ﬁnance and digital innovation) in December
2020+100 winners in the TEF 2019 competition after
coaching participants within the YouthConnekt
DRC network

YOUTHCONNEKT ZIMBABWE
YC Zimbabwe is using innovative approaches to create jobs, enhance skills, provide seed funding, and develop sustainable initiatives and policies that reduce gender inequality.
Focus area: Entrepreneurship- Seed funding/capital for innovative entrepreneurs
Components: (1) Start Up Tour Bus (2) Job Placement (3) Community engagement on national TV and radio

Achievements:
1,200+ youth reach
14 Youth Entrepreneurs
50 Incubants are under incubation process with
Ibuhub. Impact –improved income andlivelihoods, employment opportunities.
12 partners have partnered with YC-Zimbabwe
particularly private sector partnerships andgetting buy-in
Knowledge sharing with other regional oﬃces(SA chapter)

YOUTHCONNEKT LIBERIAYC Lb is enhancing economic, social, civic leadership and sustainable livelihoods opportunities; promote peace and reconciliation for Liberian youth through YouthConnekt Liberia initiatives. Further, it aims to increase access to ﬁnance andtechnical assistance for scalable youth-led ventures and innovative youth empowerment initiatives. YC-Liberia prioritizing implementation of following activities.
Decentralization of YCL activities across the 15 Counties through the Youth Centres.
Equipping the centres with logistics
Building YCL staﬀ/team with the right set of HR and skills
Mobilizing resources for YCL Post COVID-19 Work Plan
Focus area: Youth Entrepreneurship, Innovations, Civic education, and social cohesion
Components: (1) I-Forum (2) Ámouwolu (Let's Talk) (3) E-CAMP (4) Youth Month (5) President Young AchieverAwards (PY2A) (6) National Assembly

Achievements:
Go To Goals Summit
I-Forum Digital Literacy Program
Young Entrepreneurship Boot Camp
Digital Marketing Forum

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Agribusiness Tech Summit
Digital Marketing Summit
TEF Entrepreneur Program

YOUTHCONNEKT BURKINA FASO
Burkina Faso is a pioneer of the YouthConnekt Model in West Africa, has been leading the youth employment creation,
civic engagement, and supporting youth innovations. The YouthConnekt Burkina is a platform whose general objective
is to help improve the employability of 165,940 young people and their civic participation in development per year. The
YouthConnekt Burkina is working on following speciﬁc objectives:

strengthen the patriotism, volunteering, conscience, and citizen participation of atleast 153,600 young people in the work of national construction per year.
develop the entrepreneurial culture of 11,040 young people per year.
strengthen the leadership, dialogue and “living together” of 1,300 young people per
year and radio.

YOUTHCONNEKT MADAGASCAR
since its launch in 2020, the YC Madagascar has remain an innovative programme that mobilize actors, mainly national
public institutions as the sectorial ministers, private sector (ﬁnancial institutions, successful businessmen, etc.) and development partners, to collectively and comprehensively address the problem of youth unemployment and their potential
to contribute to the economy in Madagascar. The YC Madagascar connect young people with economic opportunities,
mainly entrepreneurial skills that lead to business development, access to ﬁnances to implement their projects.

UNDP Madagascar proposed the implementation of Youthconnekt to TRAC 2 grant Budget: 400 000 USD
50 Young entrepreneurs were sponsored to TEF program.
Capacities of 30 young entrepreneurs in Androy were enhanced.
Re-lifting Youth ministry website with Youthconnekt tab to facilitate information
access for youth.
Two young delegates from Madagascar took part in the YouthConnekt Summit inKigali.
A girls' summit was organized by Youth First and supported by UNDP and otherpartners aiming to foster young girls’ leadership.
Support for youth entrepreneurship as part of the response to COVID-19/Informal
sector (250 000 USD / 150 beneﬁciaries)
Youth capacity building and coaching in transforming biodegradable waste intogreen coal” (50000USD/ 100 beneﬁciaries)
Informal sector recovery and resilience through green and blue value chain development” (on pipeline)

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INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT:MICRO ASSESSMENT OF THE YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA HUB
In 2021, the YouthConnekt Africa Hub underwent a Financial Management Micro Assessment as a UN Implementing Partner. This is an important process to becoming a reputable organization that can partner withvarious organisations. YouthConnekt Africa Hub was assessed to be Moderate Risk for its ﬁnancial management capacity.
The assessment identiﬁed key areas of institutional capacity strengthing on which the YouthConnekt Africa
will act on in 2022 and going forward to build a stronger, competent and transparent organization.

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IN PHOTOS :YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA HUB FORGINGPARTNERSHIPS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Oct 2021: Mrs. Oulie Keita, YouthConnekt Africa Executive Directorand H.E Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of AfCFTA at AfCFTA Secretariat

16
Jun 2021: Mrs. Oulie Keita, YouthConnekt Africa Executive Director and UNDP RSCA Oﬃce

Jun 2021: Mrs. Oulie Keita, YouthConnekt Africa Executive Director Meets with
H.E Monique Nsanzabagana, Deputy Chair of the African Union17

Dec 2021: YouthConnekt Africa & Digital Africa Teams at MoU signing ceremony

Oct 2021: Youth Ministers and Senior Government Oﬃcials at the YouthConnekt Africa Summit

18

Oct 2021: (In the steering committee metting) Hon. Rosemary Mbabazi with Mrs.Oulie Keita

NATIONAL YOUTHSTRATEGIES©Unsplash

While YouthConnekt Africa is founded on the principle of reinforcing regional collaboration and knowledge development
on youth development issues, we believe that implementation is done and should be reinforced at local and national
levels.
Following the adoption of the AU Youth Charter, in 2006, African member states were called to undertake the necessary
steps, under their constitutional processes to adopt the legislature and other measures to put the charter into eﬀect.
The AU Youth Charter recommends, amongst other things, the adoption of comprehensive national youth policies in
consultation with youth people, establishment of mechanisms in national development planning that address the issuesof development concerning youth and coordination mechanisms that ensure continued participation of youth in policy
development and implementation.
In 2017, the African Union developed a roadmap for Africa to realize and harness its demographic dividend. This roadmap
would serve as an accountability framework to assess national and regional progress to youth empowerment. The framework is presented under four pillars: (1) Employment and Entrepreneurship, (2) Education and Skills Development, (3)Health and Well-Being, and (4) Rights, Governance and Youth Empowerment
Informed by this, and the various recent consultations that the YouthConnekt platform has held, we present ﬁve keylenses through which we recommend Governments and other stakeholders to consider in reviewing how well we aredelivering for youth.

20Africa in 2021

Key Considerations

-

Years

Median age in
AfricaBillionAfricans are connect
ed to the Web

is aged 15yrs andyounger as
opposed to 26%
globally.

Millions

1.3

450

Africa is becoming
the world single
largest free tradearea, deepening
Africa’s integration
into regional andglobal value chains.

Africa is home toover 450 Million
young people
aged 15 - 35 years.

21

4/10

40%

19

Millions

468
Estimated Urban
Population

5

22

NATIONAL YOUTH STRATEGIESYouth access to infrastructure and new technologies
Youth skilling and employment
Youth entrepreneurship and access to markets
Youth leadership and representation
Youth Well Being

YOUTH ACCESS TO INFRASTRUCTURE
AND NEW DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIESWithin the last 25 years, the development of the internet has revolutionized the world, making it a more connectedvillage, and breaking barriers to access of information and services. Africa has been on a journey of developing theinfrastructure required to make this new gold accessible to its people.
In 2020, it was estimated that 43% of Africans (Statistica, December 2020) have access to the internet, with mobile
penetration reaching 46% of the population (GSMA, 2020).
Additional to this, is the need to access electricity, for which the World Bank estimates that 54.3% of Sub-Saharan Africa
was yet to have access to this fundamental infrastructure.
With technology becoming a bedrock for access to skills, markets and public services, it is important to evaluate how
existing policies are inclusive of youth access to digital skills, infrastructure (electricity, internet) and devices that ensure
they are not left behind by this revolution. Social media, and other digital platforms are making possible to reach people
at an unforeseeable scale with skills, connection to local, regional and global digital markets for entrepreneurs, andvarious public services.
Young people stand to beneﬁt from this revolution, by accessing without limits to opportunities, and by innovating andcreating new platforms relevant to their markets. in light of emerging trends and the global COVID19 pandemic, it iseminent to revisit youth policies and programs on the continent to ensure its adaptability and relevance to date.

YOUTH SKILLING AND EMPLOYMENT
Africa is the only region globally recognised for the exponential and rapid expansion of its labor force. At the heart ofevery government and development stakeholder in Africa is the concern of creating sustainable employment for young
people.
Various studies claim that Africa needs 12 - 15 million new decent jobs every year to meet the demand. In 2019, theInternational Labor Organisation estimates that 34 million people were unemployed in sub-Saharan Africa, and that 1 in 5
young African was neither in employment, education nor training.
Closely tied to the issue of meeting the demand for jobs, is skilling young people to meet the expectations of 21st century
jobs. It is imperative that Africa leads through local and national actors to quickly turn the tide by enabling a faster andmore eﬀective skills development that corresponds to the current and future job market.
Generation Unlimited, in a recent report recommends that countries can more eﬀectively align education with relevant
skills by being mindful of the digital future, developing technical skills that are coupled with essential life skills: creativity,communication, critical thinking, and problem solving.
Agile and evidence based policies are required, in addition to bringing all stakeholders to the table, most importantly theprivate sector and academia.

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YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ACCESS TO MARKETS
Entrepreneurship is seen as one sure way to enable Africa to leapfrog some of its development challenges whilst also
creating new avenues for Africa’s youth employment and boost economic growth. Entrepreneurship, however, requires
the right policies to be in place in order to be successful. A signiﬁcant portion of Africa’s youth participates today in theinformal sector, estimated to generate 85.6% of all employment, ILO, 2018.
Like never before, youth development and employment policies should look at enabling access to markets and services forentrepreneurs, reaching even the informal sector to thrive. Additionally, Africa should unlock the potential of emerging
digital economy opportunities that promise income and employment for Africa’s youth. Africa can untap great value fromengaging the skills and workforce of young people in Agriculture and its value chains.

YOUTH LEADERSHIPOne of the founding principles of the YouthConnekt Africa is the fundamental ideal that young people should be represented in decision making, policy making and design of programs that are invested for them. With young people 15 - 35
years constituting over a third of Africa's population, estimated at 1.3 Billion in 2021, those under 35 represented over
995 Million in 2020 (Mo Ibrahim Foundation, 2020) - making the continent the youngest in the world.
It is imperative therefore that local, national and regional decision making bodies reﬂect this, in the number of young
people who are in decision making capacity, and the eﬀorts made to continuously engage youth.
Today Africa is challenged in some regions by political instability, and the onset of inﬁltrating terrorist groups. Youngpeople should be empowered to shift this development, by knowing the role they can play to reset their nations and theregion to stability.
The YouthConnekt promotes further regular policy consultations of young people that can inform eﬀective and timely
reviews of policies, programs and investments that aﬀect them. This is done addressing practical issues such as policies
addressing access to land, input and services that aﬀect the agriculture sector, access to employment, ﬁnancing andmarkets for entrepreneurs. This also engages them in having veto in the decisions aﬀecting development priorities, andtheir engagement and participation in designing more sustainable and green development plans.

YOUTH WELL BEING
Young people’s health is key to ensuring that they are productive members of society. Young people in Africa are aﬀectedby substance abuse, HIV infections, STIs and unplanned early pregnancies.
An increasingly alarming concern that policy makers should be drawn to is youth mental health.
To attain several of the set national and regional development outcomes, it is crucial to address several of the issues
related to mental health, which include poor mental health literacy, high levels of stigma, insuﬃcient knowledge on
available mental health services, and limited capacity of the mental health system.
The issue of dedicated policy, programs and investments made to ensure young people can access education and services
aﬀecting their Sexual Reproductive Health, and mental health is essential in evaluating how well young people in thevarious countries are served and empowered to make the right choices.

24

AND DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITIESOF PRACTICE ON YOUTHDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Today the YouthConnekt Africa prides itself in being a network that counts 25 African Memberstates, representing thecommitments of Government to collaboration in increasing opportunitiesto young people. YouthConnekt Africa is alsobuilding an ever growing network of over 300 non-governmental organizations that are working directly with young
people, and creating datathat inform
With a fast growing young population, Africa is expected to be home to 332 Million youth aged 15- 24 by 2030, over 450
Million by 2055. Africa’s popula- tion in 2021 is expected to have crossed the 1,3 Billion mark, with a median age of 19
years. Africa’s youth is the continent’s most important demographic representing over a third of its population., and its
most important resource.
As such it is within our mandate to develop knowledge and disseminate best practices. This sectionof the report, the ﬁrst of its kind, shares an update on partnerships secured in 2022 and brief highlights on practices ofvarious organizations which joined our eﬀorts in 2021. In 2022 and beyond we will explore how to create more opportunities for more knowledge sharing and knowledge development around the practices of youth development

26

The ambitious targets of YouthConnekt will only be reached if the initiative is able to bring key partners, donors, and stakeholders on board. While member states play an important role in the implementation to the programs, the success of YCA
is driven by its ability to build impactful partnerships and link them with its country chapters across the continent. YCA
owes its success to its close collaboration with its partners. Since its establishment, the YCA Secretariat was cognizant thatpartnerships are critical for the success of the YouthConnekt initiative. As such, the Hub is focused on identifying, engaging, and working with experienced and prominent partners at every stage for the implementation of the initiative as well
as for every component.

PARTNERSHIP & RESOURCE MOBILIZATION STRATEGYYCA developed a new Partnership and Resource Mobilization Strategy (PRMS) aimed to develop new partnerships and strengthen existing ones, as well as to mobilize additional resources to support its activities across thecontinent. The goal of the 2021 PRMS is to ensure that YouthConnekt continues to have impact aligned with its
vision and increase awareness and commitment for its continental blueprint for youth empowerment andtransformation.
Partnership with GGGI to promote and advance green entrepreneurship in Africa: YCA is joining force with the
Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to promote green entrepreneurship, drive responsible environmental
leadership and identify innovative solutions to enhance agricultural productivity, agro-industrialization, andenvironmental conservation eﬀorts.
Partnership with UNFPA to promote youth health and wellbeing across Africa: YCA is partnering with theUnited Nations Populations Fund to scale-up the iAccelerator Programme, which focuses on adolescents andyouth issues, more speciﬁcally on youth-friendly services, and youth participation and leadership. Collaboration
aims at identifying and disseminating of policies aimed at addressing youth challenges related to sexual andreproductive health, family planning, maternal health, and others.
Partnership with Snake Nation to improve young Africans access to the creative and digital economy: Snake
Nation, a disruptive FinTech and Media company based in Atlanta, GA and Cape Town, South Africa and focusedon connecting millennials to the creative economy. The YCA-SN partnership will focus on bringing creative
economy access to the forefront of economic impact programs for youth across the continent, including
incubating and accelerating young Africans in the content (e.g. poetry, short ﬁlm, photography etc.) andtechnology sectors.
Partnership with SDSN Youth to advance the SDGs through policy work and youth-led action: YCA is partneringwith SDNS Youth to capture, document and share successful youth policies and assess their impact; capture,
document and share successful youth policies; and promote volunteerism and its contribution to communityand national development.
Partnership with UNDP West and Central Africa in advance the youth development agenda in the Sahelregion: the YCA-UNDP partnership in the region will supporting the Sahel Youth Programme, throughprogrammes to provide youth with education, skill development and entrepreneurship/employment, and civic
participation opportunities.

27

Partnership with SMART Africa to accelerate the development of vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems that enable job creation for African youth across YouthConnekt National Chapters.: This partnership will support
member states to understand priorities and opportunities for development of digital ecosystems and businessmodels, and deliver tech enabled education and employment readiness opportunities for young entrepreneurs.
Partnership with the SDGs Center for Africa to support in the piloting of the SDG education programmes for young
African entrepreneurs on selected SDGs through YCA network across Africa; provide technical advice and capacity
building of countries across Africa to design integrate SDGs component in their programmes; and promote and sharecontinental-wide progress on the SDGs and how youth can accelerate this process.
Partnership with UNESCO to Identify and assess the level of implementation of national youth strategies in countries
across Africa; enhance the indicator and monitoring framework to better guide decision making and increase holistic
impact; and to advocate for best practices, knowledge management and sharing. The partnership also aims toenhance collaboration on activities related to youth elections and civic participation.
Partnership with NEPAD to explore collaboration with the NEPAD 100,000 MSMEs initiative and leverage their
Digital Academy for upcoming YCA innovation and entrepreneurship programs, as well as collaborate on policy work
surrounding youth economic empowerment and civic policy.
Partnership with Digital Africa to extend virtual learning opportunities to young African entrepreneurs through theDigital Africa Academy, develop innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems in various African nations and toorganize the participation of young entrepreneurs at the Africa France Summit in 2021.

28

THE GHANA NATION BUILDERS CORPS
Launched in May 2018 by H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, theNation Builders Corps programme (NABCO) is a major
government initiative aimed at addressing graduate
unemployment. The focus of the initiative is directed atbringing about eﬃciency in the delivery of certain
services within the public and private sectors. Amongthem are health, industry, education, agriculture, governance, technology, and revenue mobilization.
The distinguishing element is its concentration on
addressing the growing phenomenon of unemployment
and disillusionment among young people leaving tertiary
institutions.The Programme was open to all Ghanaians
who at least have a post-secondary diploma to a degree inany discipline;

and have completed their national service. Graduates
apply virtually, with shortlists made based on set criterion.
Once successful, an applicant receives a three-year
contract, training and posting as a Nation Builder. They
receive GH¢700 (~ USD120) stipend every month for aperiod of 3 years. The trainees are distributed to each of
the 275 Constituencies in Ghana. Altogether 100,000
graduates were enrolled for the program.
Under NABCO, tertiary graduates are oﬀered a range oftraining and orientation to equip them with the requisite
work tools. They are be deployed around the country torender service to critical public sectors and government
initiatives. Additionally, some private sector organisations
onboard NABCO trainees.

IMPACT TO DATE
Launched In

2018

Absorbed

100,000
In Trainees

44%

Hired byGoverment parastatals

THE SEVEN GHANA NABCO MODULESEDUCATE GHANA
Placement in the basic education sector

HEAL GHANA
Healthcare delivery in deprived and rural communities. (Nurses and other
healthcare workers)

FEED GHANA
Agricultural extension services to farmers

REVENUE GHANA
Implementation of tax reform program to increase revenue generation

DIGITIZE GHANA
Digitization of Government services

ENTREPRISE GHANA
New industry Development

CIVIC GHANA
District and Constituency level services

29

THE ART RWANDA – UBUHANZI INITIATIVE

Addressing youth unemployment through Art

Championed by H.E. Jeannette KAGAME, The First Lady of the Republic of Rwanda andthe Chairperson of Imbuto Foundation, ArtRwanda –Ubuhanzi initiative aims at identifying and supporting talented young creatives age between 18 to 35 to use their talents
and turn them into a viable business assets.

The program targets in and out of school youth with talents in the following art disciplines:
Plastic arts (paining, scripture, drawings)
Dance & music
FashionActing & drama
Cinematography & photography
Literature
The Initiative launched in 2018, is a collaboration between Imbuto Foundation and key stakeholders
namely the Ministry of Youth and Culture, UNDP and KOICA

IMPACT TO DATE

2400

Launched In

2018

Young
Creatives Auditions

68

IncubatedOver$100,000
Generated fromsales of Artwork

The initiative is implemented in the following phases:

NationWide Roadshow Auditions
1 Month Nationwide Roadshow;
The auditions are setup with modern technologies and it broadcast on the national TV;
Experienced artists are on the various panels reviewing art;
Artists are supported to get to audition centres and receive various services on arrival.

Incubation
Once selection is complete artists undergo incubation underwhich tailored training
programs are made available to them program;
Artists get matched to industry leaders for mentorship and feedback sessions on theircreations;
An emphasis is placed on enabling them to develop business acumen;
6 months incubation program at the ArtRwanda Centre.

Access to Market
Artists leverage ArtRwanda modern and centrally located selling points anddigital webstore to introduce their products to the market.
Biannual exhibitions and conferences to showcase art creation and nurtureinternational partnerships

30

567

jobs createdDIGITAL OPPORTUNITY TRUST:SPEAKING OUT, REACHING OUT
During the height of COVID-19, Digital Opportunity Trust mobilized theirchannels of youth in Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, and Uganda to
conduct a unique youth-led investigation into the impacts of the pandemic,

and into the remarkable examples of resilience exhibited through the creativity and innovation of youth. DOT captured
the experiences and perspectives of over 1,500 young people, youth focused organization and other stakeholders.
Bringing forward youth perspectives to the forefront of community development at a time when the needs of the mostvulnerable and marginalized must be made visible. The ﬁndings formed the conclusion and recommendation for youth
serving stakeholders.

Youth Serving community organizations highlighted
a need for mental health services, particularly for themost vulnerable youth.
Youth entrepreneurs urgently need ﬁnancial support
to help their businesses survive as well as businesstraining and coaching to help them address immediate challenges and prepare for post pandemic
growth.

DOT is a youth-led movement of daring social innovators who have the tools, knowledge, and networks to create opportunities and transform their own communities. DOT supports youth to become innovators and leaders, and to create and31

apply digital solutions that have positive impact in their communities.

INCUBATING SOCIAL IMPACT ENTREPRENEURS
Segal Family Foundation (SFF) seeks to promote the strength and impact
of social enterprises in Sub-Saharan African countries. SFF believes that
there is an opportunity to draw on the eﬀorts of the government, private
sector, local organizations, social entrepreneurs, INGOs, funders andinvestors to build a robust response to the continent’s most pressing
challenges.

The foundation also has conﬁdence in the abilities of local visionary leaders to design and implement eﬀective solutions
tailored to the needs of the communities they serve. This core belief has led to the establishment of the Social Impact
Incubator in Burundi in 2013. Since 2016, the Social Impact Incubator has expanded the program in Malawi and partnership with Robert Bosch Stiftung since 2018. In May 2019, Segal Family Foundation and Robert Bosch Stiftung launched
the Social Impact Incubator in Rwanda and in Tanzania.
Segal Family Foundation launched the ﬁrst cohort of the Social Impact Incubator in Burundi in 2013, and the pilot wastested with 12 organizations at the time. The incubator ran in Burundi for three years, and, as a result of the program,nearly $2 million USD has been invested in the SII champions, manifesting a wave of leveraged funding amongst various
funders active in the Burundian ecosystem. The ﬁrst successful pilot in Burundi inspired SFF to start the incubator
program in Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania where, through its convening power, the Foundation has been able to attract
more funding and investments towards the enterprises to support their growth and scale. Currently, there over 100
Social Impact Incubator alumni champions who are impressively shaping their communities and beyond.
The Social Impact Incubator serves as acatalyst creating an environment for
innovators to amplify and grow theirimpact, by providing tools, building
networks, and connecting them toinvestment. We believe that supporting visionary leaders builds strong andstable organizations and enterprisesthat create a more cohesive ecosystem for young social entrepreneurs tobe successful.

Segal Family Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation begun by Mr. Barry Segal in 2008. Mr. Segal’s ﬁrst trip to
Rwanda inspired him to devote all his remaining wealth tosupporting visionary organizations in Africa working across diﬀerent sectors including health, education, technology,
agriculture, climate resilience and circular economy to name a few. Segal Family Foundation now supports over 200
partners across 20 countries, funding over $100 million dollars in grants to date. Our grantee partners are visionarysocial entrepreneurs ﬁnding scalable solutions to Sub-Saharan Africa’s most pressing challenges.

32

THE ROLE OF PEER TO PEER MODELING IN THE AGE
OF INCREASED SOCIO-ECONOMIC PRESSURES
AFFECTING YOUNG PEOPLE
Our ﬂagship program, Barcamp Ghana , is building a
network of changemakers, doers and entrepreneurs. Since December 2008, we have organized over 150 Barcamps - free networking
forums - in Ghana, impacting over 16000 participant

A BarCamp is a user-generated conference (or unconference). It is an open, participatory work
shop-event, whose content is provided by participants. They bring together for an event of learning,
sharing, networking and mentoring. They happen on Saturdays and participation is about 100-400

The goal of the Barcamps are to help Ghanaians learn about the issues that aﬀect them, generate
ideas for development, network and partner with others who have similar interests and improve or
start businesses and projects. we ensure as many participants to inform, educate and inspire others.

STRENGTHENING YOUNG WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURIAL
VENTURES AND EMPLOYABILITY
With the aim of strengthening youth
employability, and knowing that young
women are generally more aﬀected byunemployment and underemployment.
YouthConnekt for Women, an initiative ofYouthConnekt Guinee aims at supporting
women entrepreneurs through training,access to ﬁnancing, access to new markets
and mentorship.
Realizing that no single stakeholder alone
can address the issue of creation of employment. Therefore, entrepreneurship is a key
pathway.
The training helps the women learn key skills
applicable to their business for better
management and for growth. The training
also seeks to encourage them to aspire for
growth, building their conﬁdence to seek
ﬁnancing for growth.

In this photo:
Saﬁ Emma Diakate,of Emma Afro Fashion is a beneﬁciary and a2021 Export Accelerator Entrepreneu

33The program has so far trained 600 women entrepreneurs in rural Guinee, supported by 40 mentors. The program is
supported digitally. The program’s initial aspirations were exceeded by the demand of services during the training
roadshow that found women in their home towns for training.
In addition to this important intervention YouthConnekt Guinee has launched a series “Café des opportunite” to increase
networking and access to information for young women seeking to access employment and growth in their careers.

34

EMPOWERING STUDENT UNIONS IN AFRICA
FOR PRODUCTIVE ACTIVISM

The All-Africa Students Union is the umbrella student organization for all
students in Africa and of African descent. Established in 1972, AASU has
been at the forefront of ﬁghting against all manner of injustices, especially those against democratic processes and infringements on the right toaccess education at all levels. AASU has membership across all the 54
African countries. Thus, it can mobilize at grassroots level by working
directly with its member Unions who are spread out across the African
region. It is important to note that the histories of these member unions
inspire the work and direction of the All-Africa Students Union.

To protect the education of boys and girls on the continent during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, AASU ran a campaign,
as part of the Coalition's Gender Flagship under the auspices of UNESCO, to ensure that the education of particularly
African girls is protected. Already, we knew of the widening inequalities that existed in education especially for young girls
who have been subjected to early child marriages and have suﬀered deliberate exclusion from education.
In partnership with UNESCO and the 100 Million Campaign, we launched the Africa Girls Back to School Campaign in 2020
which engaged over 60 youth and student activists across Africa. The campaign included writing petitions to community
leaders and decision makers, social media engagements, awareness creation and multi stakeholder engagements. This wasto ensure that governments and other actors take intentional actions to protect girls and their education.
Key successes were recorded in Kenya and Uganda where decision makers committed to act to protect the education ofgirls. Awareness was also created in the local communities to ensure that parents insist on the education of their girl child.

50 percent Fee-Reduction Campaign
With the outset of the COVID 19 pandemic, economic hardships aﬀected many families, which meant a struggle to feedand even fund the education of their children. Thus this campaign was to ask governments to cut fees down by 50 percent
to ensure that students from such backgrounds remained in school. Our major success was recorded in Cape Verde where
the government agreed on the same35

THE ROLE OF CIVISM IN YOUNG PEOPLEFOR STRONGER AFRICAN SOCIETIES.

Each year, YouthConnekt Burkina Faso organises nationwide camps called the Burkina Youth Days. These camps aim at
creating spaces of dialogue and exchage on experiences in order to increase young people’s engagement at citisens andto strengthen their employability.
In 2021, 600 young people in 13 diﬀerent regions of Burkina Faso participated in the Burkina Youth Days. The young
people are mobilised through the National Youth Council, representing the various regional youth councils, in partnership with the Ministryof Youth and Civic Education, the City Council of Ouagadougou and regional oﬃces for youth
entrepreneurship development.
These engagement address the following:
Dialogue on the country’s history and cultural values, addressing values for peace, tolerance, patriotism especially inlight of regional insecurity.
Strengthening of national unity and solidarity
Exchange on opportunities for youth entrepreneurship shared by youth entrepreneurs.
The national chapter also conducts a roadshow in schools where it hosts Theatre Forums under themes such as – Civism,
Citizenship, respect of public good, patriotism and promotion of peace.
Through these theater shows, that are played by young people, various educational and sensitization messages aretransmitted. Young people learn about how to live in society, how to live out patriotism under various circumstances,conﬂict resolution, and building aspirations for nation’s peace and prosperity. The theater shows, have proven very eﬀective in engaging young people.

36

TALENT4STARTUPS – A DIGITAL AFRICA INITIATIVE

After analyzing carefully all issues
which innovative entrepreneurs areconfronted with, Digital Africa cameto the conclusion that project ﬁnancing, while essential for any project tosurvive, is not enough: it is necessary
to adopt a holistic approach andleverage all aspects that are essential
to the development of digital entrepreneurs.

How it works
Digital Africa is set to launch a scholarship program focused on developing young Africans to work in tech and digital
jobs. The trained youth will then be matched with startups actively recruiting to ensure employability. This program
should also enable digital education organizations to better evaluate the impact and eﬀectiveness of their programs.
In practical terms, the aim of this pilot phase is to:Provide 250 scholarships for young people per year, in 12 countries: Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal,
Cameroon, DRC, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda
Involve 5 key partners - code schools, boot camps, master classes and committed digital pure players
Achieve a target of 70%+ placement rate
Talent 4 Startups is a program co-funded by Make It and the German government.
Launched in 2018 with the mission to equip African tech entrepreneurs with capabilities to design and scale-up
ground-breaking innovations for the real economy, Digital Africa is now a € 130 million initiative bringing together
various partners - startups, academia, incubators, institutional ﬁnanciers, venture capitalists, technology clusters - and allcommitted to African digital entrepreneurs.
Digital Africa’s model is similar to that of a super-aggregator of data, capacities and opportunities - thanks to a uniqueability to multiply ﬁnancing, training and support for entrepreneurs, or even sensitization activities. Developing skills,
creating knowledge-based communities, contributing to the emergence of a regulatory environment conducive toinnovation in Africa, oﬀering technical assistance, ﬁnancing projects and businesses, or easing access to market: ourvalue proposition, which is unique to the African tech ecosystem, is precisely this ability to activate all the relevant levers.

37

INCLUSIVE FINANCING OF AFRICA’SBOURGEONING ENTREPRENEURSWith business operations turned upside down around the globe, with by
the global COVID19 pandemic, the African Entrepreneur Collective haverevised their service oﬀerings. In both format and content, entrepreneurs needed – and received – new services to push beyond the new
economic challenges of COVID-19.
In the past 18 months, the African Entrepreneur Collective and partners
worked together to create new ﬁnancial products – COVID Relief
Grants, Islamic banking products, and reﬁnanced loan terms – to ensure
capital ﬂowed where needed. Prioritizing ﬁnancial inclusion in a year of
constrained resources led to positive impact for African Entrepreneur
Collective entrepreneurs and their communities.

African Entrepreneur Collective developed digital tools and expanded access to technology, making it possible forclients everywhere to continue receiving services with digital training, a new loan app, and smart phone distribution.
African Entrepreneur Collective oﬀers access to aﬀordable capital at the right time to ensure that businesses can grow.
The organization has grown to become the largest lender to refugee entrepreneurs in Africa, and provide Islamicbanking products to ensure that we are inclusive of all the communities we serve. With a 97% repayment rate, they areunlocking capital for those who need it most.
African Entrepreneurs Collective (AEC) supports entrepreneurs with micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises including refugee entrepreneurs across East Africa. From idea stage businesses to established companies, we meet entrepreneurs where they are.
Currently operating in 13 oﬃces across Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia, our team of over 180 staﬀ have served over 32,929
entrepreneurs who have in turn been able to create over 23,954 jobs over the last 10 years with over $48 million
revenue growth.

38

BUILDING CREATIVE SOCIETY IN UNIVERSITIESSnake Nation is setting up creative society
in universities as we believe that universities have a key role to play in promoting
the creative economy - fosters economic
growth, job creation and export earnings
while promoting social inclusion, cultural
diversity and human development.

Africa is witnessing a spike in Gender Based Violence (GBV) related oﬀences and femicide, especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic and nation-wide lockdown. Sexual violence has been a long-standing issue. Similarly, there havebeen students actively challenging this violence from as early as the 1980s.
Female students don't feel safe behind the campus walls, Snake Nation X CPUT GBV hackathon was produced with the
aimed of ﬁnding digital solutions to ﬁght the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV).
Gender-based violence is a shocking reality for so many women in South African
51% of women in SA say they've experienced GBV, with 76% of men saying they've perpetrated GBV at one stage in theirlives (2010 Gauteng sample). A similar study revealed that one in ﬁve women report that they have experienced
violence at the hands of a partner.
In 2019/20, 53 293 sexual oﬀences were reported, an average of 146 per day, up from 52 420 in 2018/19. Most of thesewere cases of rape. Of this the police recorded 42 289 rapes in 2019/20, up from 41 583 in 2018/19, an average of 116
rapes each day (SAPS Crime Stats).
In 2019/20, a total of 2 695 women were murdered in South Africa. This means a woman is murdered every three hours.
Femicide is ﬁve times higher in South Africa than the global average, with South Africa having the fourth-highest femaleinterpersonal violence death rate out of the 183 countries listed by the WHO in 2016.

The language that the media chooses to employ while reporting rape and sexual violence can heavily inﬂuence the way
its audience views gender-based violence. It can determine whether an incident of rape is viewed in a way that reproduces victim blaming narratives and rape culture, or in a way that aﬃrms the agency of women and girls, and their right tosafety and freedom from violence. How the media chooses to frame gender-based violence has direct ramiﬁcations on
how society understands the phenomenon.
Snake Nation joint Forces with Cape Peninsula University of Technology asking students to explore ways of making
campuses and communities safer, investigate how best to respond to threats, and produce tech ideas that could save
lives. Using both technology for creating tech solutions and creating content to drive awareness.
CPUT students were given 24hours to build solutions to ﬁght GBV - on a GBV Hackathon, Creatives and media students
participated on a creative content challenge, the winner from the competition showcased her work at the State Theatrein Tshwane (the largest theatre complex in Africa)

39

ACCELERATING YOUTH PARTIPATIONIN REGIONAL TRADE(FEATURE YOUTHCONNEKT CARAVAN)The YouthConnekt Mentorship - Caravan, initially called the YouthConnekt Innovators' caravan, isan annual trade facilitation mechanism that identiﬁes ready for growth and export youth-owned
companies and supports with new market exploration and exchange of knowledge between entrepreneurs in the same
industry by the Ministry of Youth and Culture, the United Nations Develop� ment Programme (UNDP) and the KoreanInternational Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
The ﬁrst edition was held in Nairobi, Kenya from 15th - 21st June 2019. The second edition took
place following the successful ratiﬁcation of the afCFTA, at a time when diﬀerent countries were
gradually reopening their borders following successful COVID19 vaccination campaigns, alongside
the fourth (4th) edition of the YouthConnekt Africa Summit held in Accra, Ghana.
Following the successful ﬁrst edition that brought 50 YouthConnekt Awardees (in diﬀerent categories and editions), thesecond edition that gave opportunity to 30 young innovators travel to Accra, Ghana to learn and share experience with
their peer entrepreneurs and other industry actors.

Objectives
Instill export capabilities among Rwandan young entrepreneurs.
Encourage innovation and creativity aligned to intra-Africa trade opportunities.
Create new business and investment opportunities for Rwandan entrepreneurs across Africa.
Establish Intra-Africa Trade and cooperation among African young entrepreneurs.

40AN ALIGNED ECOSYSTEM IS PERTINENT
IN SUPPORTING ENTREPRENEURS

Without the right environment, entrepreneurs are at a great disadvantage. The
presence of strong policy frameworks derived from national strategies is key inthe establishment of a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurs. This environmentis a collection of eﬀorts from many actors including the government, development partners, entrepreneurial support organizations and ﬁnancial institutions.

To support this, ESP has built its business model around enabling SMEs directly while also working as strategic advisors
to key institutions and stakeholders in the ecosystem which has allowed for a clear understanding of the direct eﬀect ofstrong, evidence-based national strategies on entrepreneurship. Strong national strategies with clear priorities shape
not only policy but also ﬁnancing opportunities. Aligning SME support eﬀorts with these strategic priorities ensures
entrepreneurs are beneﬁting from an optimal operating environment.
Each of these players serve a unique purpose in the establishment of this environment. Whether it's the provision ofﬁnancial support or the establishment of a robust policy framework, when these stakeholders are aligned, entrepreneurs and their communities alike beneﬁt a great deal.
In the past decade, ESP has leveraged this approach in supporting over 1000 entrepreneurs working across sectors suchas Agriculture, Service and Manufacturing across over 20 countries in Africa.
ESP is an advisory and investment group working across Africa with regional oﬃces and operations in Ivory Coast and
Rwanda. It is organized into two practice areas to deliver on varied aspects of our mission. ESP believes that when entrepreneurs are provided with intelligent capital; the right mix of technical and ﬁnancial support they can start and scale
their businesses and they are able to directly impact their communities through job creation.

41

FROM OCTOBER 20 – 22, 2021
ACCRA, GHANA“POSITIONING THE YOUTH FOR THE
POST COVID ECONOMY AND AfCFTAOPPORTUNITIES”THE 2021 YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICASUMMIT HIGHLIGHTSThe YouthConnekt Africa Summit is an annual conveningthat connects youth from across thecontinent and beyond with policy inﬂuencers, political andPhysicalDelegatesindustry leaders, as well as public, private and development sector institutions to engage, design, and accelerate

3000

VirtualDelegates

youth empowerment eﬀorts at the continent level.
The 2021 edition of the YouthConnekt Africa Summit is theﬁrst large continental convening focused solely on
drawing stakeholders together to address the most pressing youth development demands within this post COVID19

1400

Ministers
and Deputy
Ministers of
Youth

22

pandemic period which has not only Africa through theloss of human life, but also set back the continent's
thriving economies.
Hosted by H.E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,
the 2021 YouthConnekt Africa Summit was themed: Africa
Beyond Aid: Positioning the Youth for Post COVID Economy and AfCFTA Opportunities.

Organisations
Represented

66

nationalities
represented

250

The Summit aimed to deliver on the following objectives:
Deliver a high-level intergenerational dialogue for Africa's youth mandate in steering Africa's next level of growth~Africa Beyond Aid.
Explore youth inclusive quick-win interventions that can accelerate post COVID19 economic recovery.
Showcase tested cross-sector policy mechanisms that support emerging youth employment pathways.
Identify the structures, mechanisms and investments required to accelerate youth participation in regional tradesupported by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework.
Encourage multi-stakeholder collaborations to accelerate youth socio-economic transformation.
The summit served as a platform to discuss and share good practices driven by the Youth to build our resilience to themany challenges caused by the pandemic.

43

H.E. Alhaji Dr. M. Bawumia
Vice President
The Republic of Ghana

Africa’s educations policy must be gender sensitive,
only when we create a future where every youth has
the opportunity to reach their potential, then can
we say we are creating a bright future for all.
-Hon. Mustafa Ussif

Minister of Youth & Sports
The Republic of Ghana

Hon. Pius Hadzide

CEO National Youth Authority
The Republic of Ghana

44

It should be noted that the youth are key developments agents who must be included in the government development planning activities. Changes in the
demographics, technology, economics and politics,
among other factors aﬀecting young people globally.
-

The legacy of this summit will be that it sowed theseeds which ushered our continent into the age ofindustrialization and retired the notion of Africa as apool of poor.

SUMMIT COMMUNIQUE
THE YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA 2021 SUMMIT DELIBERATED ON THE FOLLOWING

Youth Participation in Regional Trade
That the adoption, promotion and operationalisation of an additional protocol on youth and women in the AfCFTA
should be prioritised;That opportunities be created for young people to lead in economic integration policy making and deal breaking;That trade ﬁnancing for young entrepreneurs to participate in the larger Africa market should be mobilised;That states should invest in women’s capacity building for their leadership and championing as entrepreneurs andjob creators;
That we should invest in building logistics infrastructure and systems that enable young entrepreneurs to quickly
jump onto the opportunity created by the African Continental Free Trade Area;
That we should make Africa Beyond Aid a reality and not a mere statement through intra Africa collaboration
across sectors;
That we should encourage youth to create production corridors along value chains of Africa’s commodities andservicesThat the harmonization of accreditations for diﬀerent professions across Africa and the promotion of industry
relevant education should be prioritised

Youth Inclusion and Leadership:That a Youth Advisory Council should be creation at the YouthConnekt Africa level
That there should be an increase in budget allocations to Ministries and Agencies responsible for Youth, as they areserving a large demographic that needs to be accompanied to become independent and productive members ofsociety.

45

Youth Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Employment:
That we should improve ecosystem approaches for a stronger and more equitable pipeline of innovations at nationaland continental level;
That we should ensure equitable and transparent processes in connecting entrepreneurs to the requisite ﬁnancing for
growth;That we reinforce national skills database platforms that identify and connect existing expertise to employment opportunities in new and emerging sectors regionally;
That we reinforce programs that impart market-oriented capacities to youth for increased competitiveness on thecontinental and global job market
That governments create enabling environments for youth entrepreneurship through greater access to public
infrastructure, education and internet;

That Private Sector and Development Organisations recruit young people through internships, fellowships, volunteering and direct employment.
That mechanisms and investments be put into place to empower youth in the creative industries
That better and conducive ﬁnancial instruments to fund youth in agripreneurship be created;
That improved access to information on the diﬀerent resource hubs for social entrepreneurs be made available

Youth Mental and Sexual and Reproductive Health:That we improve discourse and awareness of youth mental health and youth sexual reproductive health;That we design and implement better mechanisms that support youth recovery from mental health challenges andbuilding their resilience

Knowledge Development on the Practice of Youth Development:
That states should conduct M&E at national level for impact of YouthConnekt Initiatives to be captures and sharing ofbest practices;
That a Knowledge Management mechanism of the YouthConnekt that leverages
technology for communities of practice should be created;
That YouthConnekt be institutionalised in Government for sustainability;
That stronger mechanisms for Resource Mobilisation for Youth Development programs be created.

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In Photos:
YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA SUMMIT

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YOUTHCONNEKT TECHNICAL COMMITTEEMEETING
Traditionally, the YouthConnekt Africa Summit serves as a platform to reengage national chapters through the technicalcommittee meeting and the steering committee meeting. As such on 19th October 2021, the YouthConnekt Africa hosteda Technical Committee meeting, facilitated by Entrepreneurial Solution Partners, that engaged YouthConnekt implementing countries with the following objectives:
Discuss priorities, programs, plans for the year 2022
Engagement with YC implementing countries
Discuss the performance of the YouthConnekt Country Programs
Documentation of lessons learned, and seeking of strategic guidance
Propose agenda for the Steering Committee meeting
The following are key takeaways that emerged from the engagement:
Youth employment and entrepreneurship:
Members envision YouthConnekt serving as a platform that supports the creation of job opportunities for young people
and an enabling environment for the youth. The underlying factors stressed here included the importance of skills development as a pertinent part of both employment and entrepreneurship. Additionally, targeted ﬁnancial and technicalassistance for speciﬁc sectors such as agriculture was mentioned.
Scaling information access:Members highlighted that they envision YouthConnekt serving as one-stop-shop for information on opportunities acrossthe continent. They also mentioned that digitalization would serve as a key conduit for information sharing across thecontinent.
Inclusion and storytelling:
Members pointed to the YouthConnekt mantra of ‘leave no one behind’ and highlighted that they envision a platform that
fosters inclusion for all youth especially youth living with disabilities as well us uneducated youth. Secondly, they pointed
out that they foresee YouthConnekt Africa playing a key role in changing Africa’s narrative across the world.
Market access and networking:Members envision the establishment of supportive trade policies that enabled entrepreneurs to trade regionally andacross the continent. They also envisage YouthConnekt serving as a networking platform for youth across Africa
Leadership development:
Members see the YouthConnekt serving as a platform that supports the development of leaders who are able to serve inthe public sector and civil society.
Resource mobilization:
As a general theme, members believe that an established mechanism for resource mobilization is pertinent to creating
impact among the youth at scale.

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YOUTHCONNEKT STEERING COMMITTEEMEETINGOn October 20th 2022, the YouthConnekt Africa hosted the annual Steering Committee meeting, that was attended by
Ministers, Senior Government oﬃcials, UNDP Representatives, and Executives of Regional Youth Development Partners
in attendance to the Summit. The Steering Committee was chaired by Hon. Minister Rosemary Mbabazi, Minister of Youthand Culture, Government of Rwanda – also Chair of the YouthConnekt Africa, and Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa, UNDP Regional
Bureau for Africa Director – also Co-Chair of the YouthConnekt Africa.
The meeting featured a presentation by the YouthConnekt Africa Executive Director on ongoing and upcoming initiativesof the YouthConnekt Africa Hub, and received submission of updates from Ministers of Youth present. The meeting also
featured the awarding of the Export Accelerator entrepreneurs – nine of which were present at the Summit.

The meeting resolved that there shall be:
Creation of a Youth Advisory Council at the YouthConnekt Africa
Monitoring and Evaluation exercises at national chapter level for learning of the impact of YouthConnekt
initiatives and emerging best practices
Creation of a Knowledge Management Mechanism at the level of YouthConnekt Africa
Institutionalization of YouthConnekt in Government for Sustainability
Creation of Stronger mechanisms for resource mobilization.

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In Photos:

YOUTHCONNEKT STEERING COMMITTEEMEETINGYOUTHCONNEKT TECHNICAL COMMITTEEMEETING

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SAHEL FORUM 2021

FROM 30 OCTOBER - 2 DECEMBERDAKAR, SENEGAL“FOR PEACE & PROSPERITY”Hon. Mamafatou Nene
Minister of YouthThe Republic of Senegal

Mr. Njoya Tikum

UNDP
West Africa Regional Manager

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Notre légendaire culture sénégalaise de lateranga, qui signiﬁe l'hospitalité, devrait inspirer
la jeunesse sahélienne lors de ses réﬂexions etdiscussions à l'occasion du forum #YouthConnektSahel.

Our intention is to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, community leaders and changemakers that will
become the face of the Sahel we want. UNDP willaccompany the youth to make sure they have the righttools, for instance through UNDP’s Accelerator Labs
and the national YouthConnekt chapters, both ofwhich are present in all 10 countries in the Sahel.

Hosted by H.E. the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, and the Honourable Minister of Youth in Senegal, with support from
UNDP and Generation Unlimited, the ﬁrst annual YouthConnekt Sahel Forum provided a platform for exchange of ideas
among youth and leaders in the Sahel towards peace, prosperity and resilience in the region and harnessing the abundantnatural, cultural, and human resources therein. Under The theme “connecting Sahelian youth for peace and prosperity”
the forum brought together over 500 physical participants and over 1000 virtual participants towards changing the Sahelnarrative into a land of opportunities and investment. The forum came several weeks after the YouthConnekt Africa
Summit in Accra, Ghana, building on the call to action challenging youth in the Sahel to think inwards and engage withleaders towards the socio-economic and political transformation in the region. The forum oﬀered over 3 days a combination of plenaries, panel discussions, keynote speeches, an innovation challenge award, music and arts, and many more.

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Overall the YouthConnekt Sahel Forum deliberations resulted in the following key recommendations:
Peace and security in the Sahel

That regional forums are organized more frequently within the Sahel connecting stakeholders on issues related to peacebuilding, regional and national stability and social cohesion;
That young people are eﬀectively engaged in national peacebuilding processes.

Youth inclusion in decision making processes:
That young people are included and adequately represented in government and formal decision-making process including in ministries that are not traditional classiﬁed as youth;
That concrete actions are taken to advance equitable access to socio-economic and political opportunities to persons withdisabilities;
That policies on gender equality and women empowerment are reviewed and systematically implemented with quotas toensure practical and eﬀective application and inclusion of women in key parts of government.

Capacity development of youth:
Systematically introduce reforms in the education system to ensure youth (especially women) are adequately skilled for
current and emerging employment opportunities;
That investments are made in infrastructures and services (such as IT) required for young entrepreneurs to succeed in a
conducive and enabling environment.

Economic empowerment through employment and entrepreneurship
That systematic interventions are made by government towards strengthening private and informal sector which accountfor majority of youth economic activities;
That we should ensure equitable and transparent processes in connecting entrepreneurs to the requisite ﬁnancing for
growth;That attention is paid to quality of jobs held by youth rather than quantity through regular and targeted needs assessment and monitoring processes;
That gender equality is eﬀected in value chain processes towards improved economic inclusion of women;
That on- the-job training opportunities are provided to young people through an eﬀective school to work transition
process;
That government formulates programmes that support development and incubation of youth-led enterprises towards
their inclusion in trade and global markets;
Increase investment in production systems for economic viability/incentive of agricultural sector.

Climate and reforestation of the Sahel
That reforestation policies that leverage community action are instituted towards greening of the Sahel;That policies and economic incentives are provided to private sector which support green investment, production, andrecycling.

Youth sexual and reproductive heathThat increased awareness activities, access to information, and counseling services are provided to young men andwomen.

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In Photos:
YOUTHCONNEKT SAHEL FORUM

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YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA KEY PARTNERS

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YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICAPARTNERS & SPONSORS

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YOUTHCONNEKT AFRICA TEAM

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Ms. Oulie Keita
Executive Director
YouthConnekt Africa Hub

Ms. Grace Mugabekazi
Senior Policy & Programs Advisor
YouthConnekt Africa Hub

Mr. Qamer Uddin Jatoi
Programme Specialist
YouthConnekt Africa Hub

Mr. Amine Ammor
Partnership & Resource
Mobilization Specialist
YouthConnekt Africa Hub

Mr. Fabrice Macumbi
Communications Associate
YouthConnekt Africa Hub

Ms. Pamela Gasana Giramata
Executive Assistant
YouthConnekt Africa Hub

YouthConnekt Africa Hub
KG 7 Ave, Kigali-Rwanda(250) 791 054 382
info@youthconnektafrica.org©YouthConnekt Africa Hub, 2022